Hand in hand with imported

The patenting of vehicles reached 68,406 units in February, 16.1 percent more than in the same period of the previous year, as reported yesterday by the Association of Automotive Dealers of Argentina (Acara). In turn, the accumulated of the first two months of the year recorded an interannual rise of 22.6 percent to add 188.953 units. The figure shows the best bimester since the statistics of the sector are compiled. The negative aspect of the boom is the growing weight of imported vehicles, which not only displace local production but also explain a significant part of the trade balance deficit.

It is not yet known how many vehicles sold the terminals to the dealerships last month to specify what percentage of domestic vehicles represented the total sold. However, the latest available data show that it is a clearly minority percentage. Last year dealerships sold 900,942 zero kilometer vehicles, but, according to data from the association of manufacturers Adefa, only 259,008 units were national, 28.7 percent. In turn, 118,924 units were patented in January and 16,843 units were patented, a 14.1 percent.

The advance of the imported units had a strong negative impact on the outflow of foreign currency. According to the INDEC, the import of vehicles in 2017 rose 40.9 percent measured in dollars and reached 6297 million dollars, which explained 74.3 percent of the trade deficit for the period.

The brand with the greatest presence in the market during February was Volkswagen, with 11,089 units, 16.4 percent of the total. They were followed by Renault (14.7 percent), Chevrolet (12.9), Ford (11), Fiat (10.7), Toyota (10.7), Peugeot (8.4) and Citroën, with 3, 3 of the market. Among imported high-end brands there was a strong advance in patenting in the last two years. The Japanese Nissan was ranked ninth with 2.3 percent of the patents. Jeep concentrated the 1.5, Audi the 0.6, BMW the 0.3 percent and Volvo the 0.2 percent. As for the car models, the best seller was the Toyota ETIOS with 5.1 percent, followed by the Volkswagen Gol that also concentrated 5.1 percent of the total, but sold 41 units less. Third was the Chevrolet ONIX with 5 percent of the market.

For its part, the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Chamber (CAFAM) reported that in February 57,637 units were patented, with an increase of 16.5 percent year on year. Unlike what happened with vehicles, 90 percent of motorcycles patented in February (52,052) were manufactured in the country. As for the places in the country where most of the registrations were registered in February, the ranking is led by the provinces of Buenos Aires with 16,630, Santa Fe with 5,811 and Córdoba with 5,088. They are followed by the province of Chaco with 3,993 and Tucumán with 3,409 units.